


Sleepless Nights

by prince_doomed



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Experimental Style, Nightmares, Poetic, Teenagers, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-18 21:43:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22833655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prince_doomed/pseuds/prince_doomed
Summary: The Umbrella Academy is the face of greatness and the teen superheroes who save the world time and time again. But how does all this let them sleep at night? Spoiler Alert: it doesn’t.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very experimental piece, each chapter being some form of descriptive writing representing the character during one particular evening. The final chapter will be my interpretations, or what I had in mind while writing these pieces, but feel free to draw your own meaning from it. Any and all feedback is appreciated and please leave your interpretations in the comments as well. I might even add them to the chapte off interpretations :)  
> Thanks, and I hope you enjoy  
> \- Cora

Luther was lying awake at night. He had every night, for as long as he could remember. Mom diagnosed him with insomnia when he was five, but it only made him feel worse to consider. It meant he didn’t go through all the pain he knew the others did in their dreams, only ever getting restless, dreamless naps. He put a pillow over his ears once when he was seven, but he only felt guilty for being so selfish. So after that, he just stared at the ceiling. Sometimes he’d sneak out, try to look at the stars and the moon who were awake alongside him, but he never got to be out very long. And he couldn’t see outside from his room. But tonight was bad, and he had to sneak out again. Otherwise, Luther would be lying awake at night.

His room was always quiet, always the same. He heard whimpers and screams from the rooms all around him, and hoped that the quiet creaking of his bed as he sat up and swung his feet over the side would go unnoticed by their father. His feet shook when he first tried to set them down, and so Luther dug his hands into the mattress until he felt stabilized again. His breathing was all shaky, and he came out with chunks of mattress in his hands but that didn’t matter. He just needed to breathe. He couldn’t take the air anymore, it felt like he was suffocating. But the room was the same. 

His steady footsteps along the wooden floor went unacknowledged by his siblings, who were also making their way through the corridor. Their journeys were much shorter ones, but Luther tried not to acknowledge them either. He wasn’t sure he could anyway. So he just tried to settle his breathing in tune with his steady footsteps along the wooden floor.

Blinking was almost like dreaming, when the pictures flashed behind his eyes. It wasn’t fair to think that, of course it wasn’t fair, but it was the closest Luther got to the pain of their nightmares. So he pretended. The pictures stung on the lids of his eyes, so he supposed they must count for something. But it wasn’t the same, no, blinking wasn’t almost like dreaming.

Pogo caught him at the end of the first hall. Their butler was half of his size, even though Luther was only thirteen, and yet he froze like a deer in the headlights. Pogo’s stare was intense and cold, modeled after their father, and he followed his rules rather closely. So Luther was terrified. But on this particular evening, Pogo’s face faded into one of pity, and he stepped aside, waving his hand to let Luther through. So maybe he’d changed. The end of the first hall wasn’t so scary at all, without Pogo.

The door to the roof-despite its rusty cold metal-was the most relieving thing to see. Luther practically fell outside, finally getting a breath of fresh air since…thinking about it alone made him nearly puke, and he crumpled in one himself, falling softly to his back on the concrete roof of their home. He could finally see the stars and the moon. And they were beautiful. And the rusty cold metal door to the roof was the last thing on Luther’s mind.


	2. 2

The sound of metal ripping through flesh  
H  
The smell of blood against the wall  
E  
The looks of fear on their faces  
L  
The feel of bile and regret  
P  
The taste of bitter cold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, the formatting of this chapter looked a whole lot nicer in google docs, but I tried


	3. 3

“Was that…?”

“Diego? Yeah, come on, we have to help!”

“Klaus! How did you get in here?”

“Through the door, now come on!”

“I’m with Klaus on this one, Diego will need help to calm down.”

“Wha-”

“No time for questions Allison, we need a plan.”

“Okay, okay. Well Klaus, I think you know Diego the best, you can comfort him. I’ll help, and maybe wake him up? Ben  ~~ when did you get here? ~~ you’re a good lookout and Five can distract dad.”

“Excellent planning number 3!”

“Oh shut up Klaus  ~~ you sound so much like dad ~~ .”

“Alright, well Benny boy, let's get moving.”

“I’ll be right behind you. Five do you think you can…okay never mind. I guess you’ve got it covered.  ~~ I hope Diego is okay. And I hope dad doesn’t punish us, and where’s Luther? ” ~~

“Allison! He won’t wake up!”

“I’m coming!”

“Did anybody tell Vanya?”

“It’s alright Ben, Vanya is a goddess of independence.”

“Klaus!  ~~ It’s our own fault she has to be. ~~ ”

“Well I’m right. Now help Diego!”

“Diego...I heard a rumor you woke up.”

“Woah, hey, you’re okay.”

“I’ve never seen Klaus this serious,  ~~ is everything really alright? ~~ ”

“Yeah.”

“Are you alright Ben?”

“Yeah.”

“Do we just...go back to sleep after this?”

“I don’t know. I guess.”

“Sorry, I know you don’t have the answers.  ~~ But I’m scared. ~~ ”

“S’okay.”

“I’m going to help Klaus again, alright?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s alright. Everything is alright.  ~~ I wish I was a normal kid. ~~ ”


	4. 4

You can be afraid  
But you are never alone  
So come back to us


	5. 5

Diego’s scream tore them all from their own restless sleep  
It was a nasty guttural thing, from somewhere deep within  
Security cameras meant they couldn’t just get up and help  
They all knew what to do, they’d been through this before  
Reacting quickly and with well placed timing was the key  
And no one was better with time than him, so he woke up  
Cameras were everywhere in their rooms and easy to find  
To catch the eye of one was simple, to keep it was less so  
It required making a fuss of shouts while jumping around  
Obnoxiousness, keeping watchful eyes off of his siblings  
Nobody ever asked him how he felt about what came next


	6. 6

Harsh deep breathing following a tear through the hall. The pattering of feet on wood and the creaking open of seven different doors. Hushed voices, gasping, muttering and then scattering along the wall. Fingers raced through short black hair, shaking and cold. White knuckles an anchoring grip on a door frame. Dented, in desperate need of repair. Deeper in the room glazed eyes stare in ones of a haunted and desperate hue. A cough to break the glass silence, followed by a cacophony of sound. A howling and a bubbling from a shaking, melted form. A breath of hushed words and intermittent hums from a reaching, distant form. A snap and click from a worried and scared form. So many sounds, a flood of chaos crashing around while the smell of rotting wood and dust filled the air. Bubbled like glass in a snow globe one figure stood with white knuckles having torn through the door. Face frozen in slack, while the mind was a chaotic storm. They couldn’t know or see the fear. He had to be there for them.


	7. 7

They’d gone on their first mission today, Vanya’s siblings had.

She’d watched wistfully from the rooftop, sitting next to her father. 

She wanted to be included, to help, to be a part of something.

He hadn’t even bothered to give her a view. 

She couldn’t help anyway.

Now, they muttered and screamed and cried.

Even Five seemed afraid.

Vanya wasn’t so sure she wanted to be included anymore.


	8. Interpretations

Thank you for joining me through this, I hope that my first true attempts and anything poetic weren’t too horrible. As far as what was on my mind while writing these, here’s that? (These are all pulled directly from my notes, hence the brief and unprofessional scribbles)

Luther:

First up Luther, with the methods of ignoring and one thing at a time, hence the paragraph breaks and foggy details

Diego:

Diego isn’t coping well at all, having the worst nightmare, but could cope if he let someone in

Allison:

Mostly dialogue, representative of her powers and how she copes by filling her mind with words and detaching from a lot of the rest

Klaus:

Klaus copes by helping others, haiku form

Five:

Five copes in a more indirect way, being bold, obnoxious and a distraction, but he is scared too, and distracting himself

Ben:

More sound and description based, no emotion or narration, Ben copes by splitting himself from his actions, maybe end with something about not letting his emotions through? Reminds me of when Klaus was captured, and he vented for the one and only time, finally showing his pain

Vanya:

Vanya, facing it as ‘maybe I’m not so bad after all’ as a coping mechanism. Short, clarification

Any commenters interpretations who would like to be featured will be posted below :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! And just as I said in the beginning, any feedback is welcome, as well as your own interpretations of what I wrote :)
> 
> -Cora


End file.
